Reggio Calabria
—  Comune  —
Città di Reggio Calabria
Collage of Reggio Calabria
Flag Coat of arms
Map of the province of Reggio Calabria, with Reggio Calabria located to the south at the end of the A3 motorway (A3 depicted in green).
Reggio Calabria Location of Reggio Calabria in Italy
Coordinates: 38°06′41″N 15°39′43″E / 38.11139°N 15.66194°E / 38.11139; 15.66194Coordinates: 38°06′41″N 15°39′43″E / 38.11139°N 15.66194°E / 38.11139; 15.66194
Country	Italy
Region	Calabria
Province	Reggio Calabria (RC)
Founded	720 BC[1]
Government
• Mayor	Demetrio Arena (PdL)
Area
• Total	236 km2 (91 sq mi)
Population (30 June 2009)[2]
• Total	186,547
• Density	790/km2 (2,000/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	89100
Dialing code	0965
Patron saint	Saint George
Website	Official website

Reggio di Calabria (Italian pronunciation: [ˈrɛddʒo di kaˈlaːbrja]; Calabrian dialect: Rìggiu, Greek-Calabrian: Righi, Greek: Ῥήγιον, Rhegion, Latin: Rhegium), commonly known as Reggio Calabria  listen (help·info) or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.

Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian peninsula and is separated from the island of Sicily by the Strait of Messina. It is situated on the slopes of the Aspromonte, a long, craggy mountain range that runs up through the center of the region. The region is subject to earthquakes and tsunami. It is the largest and oldest city in the region and is the second oldest city in Italy overall. The third economic center of mainland Southern Italy and is well known as a port and university city. The city has a population of 186,547 spread over 236 km², while the fast-growing urban area numbers 260,000 inhabitants. Another 370,429 people live in the metropolitan area (the 10th metropolitan city of the Italian nation).

Reggio has other commonly used popular nicknames: The "city of Bronzes", for the Riace bronzes which are testimonials of its Greek origins; the "city of bergamot", which is exclusively cultivated in the region; and the "city of Fatamorgana", an optical phenomenon visible only from the Reggio seaside in Italy.

The city was officially founded in 720 BC,^[1] on the site of an older settlement, by the Ancient Greeks who called it Rhégion (meaning "it breaks away" or "cape of the king") and was a well established part of Magna Graecia. It became a Roman ally and part of the Roman Republic, then metropolis and capital of the possessions of the Byzantine Empire in southern Italy (from 553 to 1071). Reggio emerged as the capital of the Duchy of Calabria for a period until it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sicily. It was then part of the Kingdom of Naples and from 1282 to −1860 it was known as the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification.

Industry[link]

Reggio retains a somewhat rural ambience despite its sizable population. Industry in the city revolves primarily around agriculture and the export of fruits and tobacco. Because Reggio is a port city it has a sizeable fishing industry. The beaches of the city have helped make it a popular tourist destination.^[3]

The municipality of Reggio Calabria contains the frazioni ("subdivisions", mainly villages and hamlets) of Catona, Gallico, Archi, Pentimele, Gallina, Mosorrofa (Greek: Messorofè), Ortì (Greek: Orthioi), Pellaro (Greek: Pèllaros) and Saracinello.

History[link]

This section requires expansion.

Ancient history[link]

Tetradrachm of Rhegion with the Nemean Lion.

After Cumae, Reggio is one of the oldest Greek colonies in southern Italy. The colony was settled by the inhabitants of Chalcis and Messenia in 720 BC on the site of the older settlement, Erythrà (Ερυθρά), meaning "the Red one". This dated back to the 3rd millennium BC and was established by the Ausones. The last Ausonian ruler was king Italus, from whom the name of Italy is derived.^[4] King Iokastos is buried on the Punta Calamizzi promontory, called "Pallantiòn", where Greek settlers later arrived. The colony retained the earlier name of "Rhegion" (Ρήγιoν).

Reggio was one of the most important cities in Magna Grecia, reaching great economic and political power during the 5th and 6th centuries BC under the Anaxilas government. Anaxilas allowed Reggio to rule over all the Messina Strait, including Zancle (modern Messina). Later, the polis of Rhegion reached great artistic and cultural heights with its philosophic Pythagorean, sculpture and poetry schools from where leaders such as Pythagoras of Rhegium and Ibycus were educated. Rhegion later allied with Athens during the Peloponnesian War until 387 BC when the city was taken by the Syracusans. The Apostle, St. Paul passed through Rhegium in his final voyage to Rome (Acts XXVIII:13).

As an independent city Rhegium was an important ally and "socia navalis" of Rome. During the Imperial age it became one of the most important and flourishing cities of southern Italy when it was the seat of the "Corrector", the Governor of "Regio II Lucania et Bruttii" (province of Lucany and Brutium). It was devastated by several major earthquakes and associated tsunami during the Roman Empire when it was called "Rhegium Julium" and was a noble Roman city.

During the Byzantine Age Reggio became the capital of the "metropolis of the Byzantine possessions in southern Italy". It was later made the capital of the Duchy of Calabria and linchpin of the Greek church in Italy. During the 8th century the city became a Holy See.

Middle Ages[link]

Reggio di Calabria in a medieval engraving.

Numerous occupying armies came to Reggio during the early Middle Ages due to the city's strategic importance. For hundreds of years Reggio was taken by various factions. The Saracens established a self-proclaimed sultanate on the Southern Italian coast under Mofareg-ibn-Salem which, at its peak reached, from Bari to Reggio and lasted from approximately 853–871.^[5] The next factions were the Lombards, the Byzantines and the Normans. In 1060 the Normans, under Robert Guiscard and Roger I of Sicily, finally captured Reggio but Greek cultural and religious elements persisted until the 17th century.

In the 12th century Reggio became part of the Kingdom of Sicily. In 1282, during the Sicilian Vespers, Reggio rallied in support of Messina and the other oriental Sicily cities because of the shared history, commercial and cultural interests. It supported the Aragonese forces against the House of Anjou. The city was ranked to Kingdom of Naples. In the 14th century it obtained new administrative powers.

Reggio is known as the location of the first dated Hebrew book, a Rashi commentary on the Pentateuch printed in 1475,^[6] although scholars consider Rome as the city where Hebrew printing began.

Modern history[link]

Effects of the 1908 earthquake.

Reggio di Calabria in 1920.

Because of continuous Turkish incursions, pestilence, and the oppressive Spanish domination taxes, the power of Reggio began to decay during the 16th century until the disastrous 1783 earthquake. The quake damaged not only Reggio but all southern Calabria and Messina.

In 1806 Napoleon Bonaparte took Reggio and assigned the city as Ducate and General Headquarters. On August 21, 1860, during the famous "Battaglia di Piazza Duomo" (Cathedral Square Battle), Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Brun Antonio Rossi, the mayor of Reggio, was the first in the kingdom to proclaim the new Garibaldi Dictatorship and the end of the rule of Francis II.

On December 28, 1908, at exactly 5:21 AM, the town was hit by a heavy earthquake and shook violently for 31 seconds. Damage was even worse in Messina across the Straits. It is estimated that 25,000 people perished in Reggio and 65,000 in Messina. Reggio lost 27% of its inhabitants and Messina lost 42%. Ten minutes after the catastrophic earthquake those who tried to escape running towards the open spaces of the coast were engulfed by a 10 metre high tsunami. Three waves of 6–12 metres swept away the whole waterfront. The 1908 Messina earthquake remains one of the worst on record in modern western European history.^[7][8] It took Reggio a generation to fully recover.^{[citation needed]}

The city was rebuilt to the then modern standards but, because of its strategic military position, it suffered a devastating air raid by the British 8th Army in 1943. After the Second World War Reggio recovered considerably.

In 1970 rioting broke out on the streets of Reggio in protest a decision to make Catanzaro Calabria's regional capital instead of Reggio.^[9] The revolt was taken over by young neofascists of the Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale Italiano – MSI) backed by the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type criminal organisation based in Calabria.^[10][11] The Reggio Calabria protests were the expression of malcontent about cronyism and the lack of industrial planning.

Between the 1970s and the 1980s Reggio went through twenty years of an increase in organized crime by the 'Ndrangheta as well as urban decay. The town is home to several 'ndrine, such as the Condello-Imerti and the De Stefano-Tegano clans, which were involved in bloody wars against each other during this period.^[12] The 'Ndrangheta extorts protection money ("pizzo") from every shop and viable business in town and has more power than the city council in awarding licences to retailers.^[11]

The spiral of corruption reached its zenith in the early 1990s. The sitting mayor at the time, Agatino Licandro, made a remarkable confession reporting "suitcases coming into city hall stuffed with money but going out empty". As a result of the nationwide corruption scandals most of the city council was arrested.^[11] But, since the early 1990s, the so called "Primavera di Reggio" (Reggio Spring) – a spontaneous movement of people and government institutions – encouraged city recovery and a renewed and stronger identity.^{[citation needed]} The symbol of the Reggio Spring is the Lungomare Falcomatà, the sea-side boulevard named after Italo Falcomatà the mayor who initiated the recovery of the town.^{[citation needed]}

Names of the city through the ages[link]

During its three-thousand year history Reggio has often been renamed. Each name corresponds with the city's major historical phases:

• Erythrà (Ερυθρά, "The Red One"), the pre-Greek settlement populated by the Italic people.
• Rhègion (Ῥήγιον, "Cape of the King"), the Greek city from the archaic age to the Magna Grecia age (starting from Pallantiòn site)
• Febèa (Phoebea, solemny dedicated to Apollo), a short period under Dioneges II.
• Rhègium, its first Latin name.
• Rhègium Julium (Reggio Giulia), as a noble Roman city during the Imperial age.
• Rivàh, short period under the Saracens domination.
• Rìsa, under the Normans.
• Regols, under the Crown of Aragon, in XIII century.
• Reggio or Regio, in the modern age.
• Règgio di Calàbria, post Italian Unification.

Main sights[link]

View of Reggio Calabria from Rotonda square.

Cilea Theatre.

The Riace bronzes, that can be seen at the important National Museum of Greater Greece, are some of the main touristic destinations in Reggio. The Lungomare Falcomatà, a seaside promenade located in the downtown, is a crowded swimming destination and main symbol of the summer movida. Tourism in Reggio is distributed between the Ionian coast (Costa Jonica), the Tyrrhenian coast (the Costa Viola, Purple Coast) and the Aspromonte mountain behind the city, which contains the natural reserve of Aspromonte National Park where, at 1,400 metres above the sea level, there is a panoramic view of the Strait of Messina from the snowy mount Etna to the Aeolian Islands.

Other sights[link]

• The Cathedral of Reggio Calabria is the largest religious building in Calabria.
• The Aragonese Castle, built before 540, is now home to art exhibitions.
• Chiesa degli Ottimati ("Church of the Optimates") constructed in Byzantine-Norman style.
• The walls of the ancient city, one of the few remaining examples of the original Greek walls, are divided into four separate sections. The one at the Falcomatà Seaside dates to the 4th century BC and is attributed to the city's reconstruction by Dionysius II of Syracuse.
• Villa Zerbi is a villa in 14th-century Venetian style. It is the seat of exhibition of the Venice Biennale in southern Italy.
• Remains of Roman baths.
• The Pinacoteca Comunale ("Town Art Gallery") houses works by Antonello da Messina (Abraham Served by the Angels and St. Jerome in Penitence), Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano, Giuseppe Benessai and others.
• The church of Saint Gaetano Catanoso (1879–1963) on via Catanoso in the Santo Spirito neighborhood. Canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 23 October 2005 St. Gaetano is the first saint from Calabria since Saint Francis of Paola (canonized in 1507). St. Gaetano was founder of the Sisters of St. Veronica of the Holy Face. His glass tomb is in the sanctuary as well as museum exhibits. Catanosa was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 4 May 1997.

Problems[link]

Sea Pollution[link]

Many sea shores in Reggio Calabria are polluted by the release of untreated sewer wastes.^[13]

Climate[link]

Reggio di Calabria possess a typical Mediterranean climate.

Notable people[link]

For more information, see Category:People from Reggio Calabria

• Pythagoras (5th century), sculptor
• Ibycus (6th century), poet
• Gaetano Catanoso (1879–1963), saint, priest
• Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916), painter, sculptor
• Domingo Periconi (1883-1940), painter
• Goffredo Zehender (1901–1958), Grand Prix driver
• Giovanni Imbalzano (born 1944), physicist and mathematician
• Santo Versace (born 1944), economist for fashion designer and politician
• Gianni Versace (1946–1997), fashion designer
• Donatella Versace (born 1955), fashion designer

International relations[link]

Twin towns — Sister cities[link]

Reggio Calabria is twinned with:

• Athens, Greece, since 2003
• Egaleo, Greece, since 2004
• Patras, Greece, since (unknown)
• Cesana Torinese, Italy, since 2006

See also[link]

References[link]

• Paoli, Letizia (2003). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style, New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-515724-9 (Organized-crime.de, Review by Klaus Von Lampe) (CCKA-ACJP.ca, Review by Alexandra V. Orlova)
• Partridge, Hilary (1998). Italian politics today, Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-4944-X

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Reggio Calabria

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official tourist site
• The City of Reggio Calabria
• Province of Reggio Calabria

Beppe Grillo
Leader of the Five Star Movement
Incumbent
Assumed office October 4, 2009
Personal details
Born	(1948-07-21) 21 July 1948 (age 63) Genoa, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Political party	Five Star Movement
Relations	Married
Children	6
Occupation	Comedian, Activist, Politician
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Website	http://www.beppegrillo.it/

Giuseppe Piero Grillo, better known as Beppe Grillo (born 21 July 1948), is an Italian activist, blogger, comedian and actor. He has been involved in politics since 2009 as leader of the Five Star Movement.

Biography[link]

Grillo was born in Genoa, Liguria.

After receiving his degree as an accountant, Grillo became a comedian by chance, improvising a monologue in an audition. Two weeks later he was discovered and launched by Italian TV presenter Pippo Baudo. He subsequently participated in the variety show Secondo Voi for two years (1977–78). Later, in 1979, he participated in Luna Park by Enzo Trapani, and Fantastico.

In the 1980s his success rose further, thanks to shows like Te la do io l'America (1982, 4 episodes) and Te lo do io il Brasile (1984, six episodes). In these shows, he narrated his experiences of his visits to the United States and Brazil, with anecdotes and witticisms about the culture, lifestyle and beauty of these places.

As a result, his popularity grew more and more, and he became the protagonist of another show developed especially for him, called Grillometro (Grillometer). In 1986, he was the star of prize-winning advertisements for a brand of yogurt.

Soon after this, his performances began to be characterized by an increasing level of political satire, often expressed in such a direct way that he quickly offended a lot of Italian politicians. In 1987 during the Saturday night TV show Fantastico 7, he attacked the Italian Socialist Party and its leader Bettino Craxi, then Italy's Prime Minister, on the occasion of his visit in the People's Republic of China. Grillo said:

If the Chinese are all socialists, whom do they steal from?

The joke hinted at the totalitarianism of the PRC, but even more to the widespread corruption for which the Italian Socialist Party was known. As a consequence, Grillo was effectively and silently banished from publicly owned television; yet, he was vindicated a few years later when the Italian Socialist Party had to be disbanded in a welter of corruption scandals known as Tangentopoli, uncovered by the Mani pulite investigation. Craxi himself died in Tunisia, unable to return to Italy where he would have been jailed for several convictions.

Consequently, from the beginning of the 1990s his appearances on television became rare: according to many people, the reason for this is a silent ostracism by politicians offended by his revelations about their hidden financial activities, frauds and false claims. When one of his shows was finally allowed to be broadcast by RAI, in 1993, it obtained a record share of 16 million viewers. He was later banned definitively from Italian television.

He currently performs in theatres in Italy and abroad, often with outstanding success.^[1] Grillo's themes include energy usage, political and corporate corruption, finance, freedom of speech, child labour, globalization, and technology. Recently Grillo started to encourage the use of Wikipedia as the future of knowledge sharing, and generally he is a strong proponent of internet freedom.^[2]

Political activism[link]

Beppe Grillo in Bologna speaking at V-Day.

Grillo has spearheaded several national and international political campaigns. On Sept. 8, 2007, he organized a "V-Day Celebration" in Italy; the "V" stood for vendetta, vengeance, and vaffanculo ("fuck off"). During the rally, Grillo projected the names of two dozen Italian politicians who had been convicted of crimes ranging from corruption and tax evasion to abetting a murder. More than 2 million Italians participated in this rally.^[3] Grillo also used this rally to urge Italians to sign a petition calling for the introduction of a Bill of Popular Initiative to remove members of the Italian Parliament who have criminal convictions of any kind from their office.^[4] According to Internet scholars, V–day was the first case in Italian history of a political demonstration developed and promoted via word–of–mouth mobilization on the blogosphere and the social web.^[5]

This was followed by the second V-Day on 25 April 2008, in Turin, S.Carlo square. This V-Day was dedicated to the Italian press and its government financial support; Grillo heavily criticized the Italian press for the lack of freedom; Umberto Veronesi (about his support for incinerators); NATO bases in Italy, the politicians (Silvio Berlusconi had recently been re-elected) and Retequattro, still holding on to TV frequencies already assigned to Europa 7 [2].

Beppe Grillo in Turin during electoral campaign.

On 1 September 2005, thanks to contributions from readers of his blog, Grillo bought a full page advertisement in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica in which he called for the resignation of the Bank of Italy's (then) governor Antonio Fazio over the Antonveneta banking scandal. In October 2005, Time chose him as one of the "European Heroes 2005" for his constant battle against corruption and financial scandals.^[6]

On 22 November 2005 Grillo also bought a page in the International Herald Tribune, again claiming that members of the Italian Parliament ought not to represent citizens if they have ever been convicted in a court of law, even in the first degree of the three available in the Italian system.^[7] His blog now contains a regularly updated list of members of the Italian Parliament who have been convicted in all three degrees, in what he calls "operation Clean Parliament".^[8] Grillo claimed, in 2007, that data suggested that even Scampia, the most dangerous suburb of Naples and one of the areas with the highest crime rate in Europe, actually had a lower crime rate than the Italian parliament's membership.^[9]

On 26 July 2007 Grillo was permitted to speak to the members of the European Parliament in Brussels, where he drew attention to the dangerous, negative state of current Italian politics.^[10]

In August 2008, Grillo was the subject of a report on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC-TV) international affairs program "Foreign Correspondent". Titled "The Clown Prince" the report profiled Grillo's life, political activism, V Day campaign, and use of the internet as a political tool.^[11]

In 2010, he started a political movement called "Movimento 5 stelle" ("Movement five stars"), without the desire to be a leader and to be elected, but only to join, by the Internet, people who believe in ideals like honesty and direct democracy, and saying that politicians are only subordinates of the people and that they should work for the country only for a short time and only if they are not condemned for crimes, and thinking about the problems of their country without any other interest. The movement will be truly a party chance only from the next political round, when they will purpose their name not only in some regions but also in the political elections. The five stars represent the five basic points of the shared program: Water, Environment, Transport, Connectivity, Growth.

Beppegrillo.it[link]

Grillo maintains a blog (available in Italian, English and Japanese) at beppegrillo.it which is updated daily. Comments to posts regularly top the thousands (in the Italian version). According to Technorati, the blog is ranked among the 10 most visited blogs in the world. In 2008, The Guardian ranked Grillo's blog among the world's most powerful blogs.^[12]

Grillo often receives letters of appreciation and support from prominent figures, such as Antonio Di Pietro (former Italian Minister of Infrastructures), Fausto Bertinotti (former President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies), Renzo Piano, and even Nobel Prize Winners (like Dario Fo, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Dalai Lama, Muhammad Yunus).^[13]

Legal issues[link]

In 1980 he was found guilty of manslaughter for a car accident in which he was the driver; three passengers lost their lives.^[14]

During his shows Grillo never hesitates to name firms and personalities he considers corrupt, always supporting his views with data and documents^{[citation needed]}. For this reason he has been sued several times for libel by many people and organizations which he had exposed, such as Telecom Italia.

When Italian judges were investigating the Parmalat scandal, which was then the world's largest corporate bankruptcy scandal ever, Grillo was called to testify as he anticipated the imminent collapse of the dairy conglomerate in one of his shows. When he was asked by judges how he has been able to discover that, he simply said that Parmalat's financial holes were so evident that anybody who had enough ability to see them would see them, since the corporate accounting was easily accessible.^[15]

Criticism[link]

Grillo is often criticized for his lifestyle. In particular, critics blame him for owning a motor yacht and a Ferrari sports car, both being in contradiction with his well known ecologist stance. In his blog he admits that he did, in fact, acquire both but has since sold them.^[14]

Grillo is also criticized for taking advantage of the Condono Tombale, a fiscal amnesty granted by the first Berlusconi government in 2001, which Grillo publicly opposed.^[16] Grillo commented on this issue during the V-Day demonstration. He said that he had personally benefitted by only €500^{[citation needed]}.

Grillo has proposed that members of the Italian Parliament who have a criminal record should be barred from public office. As Grillo himself has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter caused by a car accident^[14] his critics^[who?] say he has no right to represent Italians either. Grillo has always stated that he is not interested in becoming a member of the Italian Parliament anyway.^[14] Despite this, in July 2009 he publicly expressed his intention to present himself as a candidate for the PD's primary elections^[17] which, however, does not imply automatic presence in the Italian parliament.

Another proposal of his is that members of Parliament be limited to two government terms of office after which they might not stand again. Detractors^[who?] argue that this would shorten the political life of competent and expert politicians, usually drawing Alcide De Gasperi, Aldo Moro and Enrico Berlinguer as examples of brilliant politicians who served more than two terms. Marco Travaglio replied that, for that sake, also the political life of much less popular Clemente Mastella would have suffered.^[18]

Grillo is criticized as being a mere demagogue who attacks politicians on superficial issues and their private lives while unable to provide a valid alternative. For instance, Daniele Luttazzi, famous Italian satirist, criticized Grillo in 2007 in an open letter published on the website of the news magazine Micromega. Luttazzi accused Grillo of being a "demagogue" and a "populist", suggesting Grillo to choose between satire and politics, asserting the two are incompatible.^[19]

In 2007 Grillo criticized the "Memorial Day of Foibe Massacres and Istrian-Dalmatian exodus" and the President of the Italian Repubblic Giorgio Napolitano^[20]

Filmography[link]

Grillo has appeared in three movies:

• Cercasi Gesù (1982)
• Scemo di Guerra (1985)
• Topo Galileo (1987)

In 2008, Grillo featured in the documentary, The Beppe Grillo Story, produced by Banyak Films for Al Jazeera English.

References[link]

External links[link]

Official websites[link]

• The English version of Beppe Grillo's personal blog
• Beppe Grillo's fans meeting map around the world

Other resources[link]

• 'Time' article about Grillo
• 'New York Times' video about Grillo
• 'New Yorker' Beppe’s Inferno